Vitali Klitschko wants bout with Haye – News

By Jason Kim: Fresh off his one-sided 12 round unanimous decision over Kevin Johnson (22-1-1, 9 KO’s) on Saturday night in Berne, Switzerland, World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko (39-2, 37 KO’s) said about WBA heavyweight champion David Haye: “This will be very interesting to fight Haye, but let’s see what next year brings. I am ready.”

However, Haye has a fight against mandatory challenger John Ruiz in early 2010, and must win that fight before there can be any talk about a Haye-Klitschko fight. Haye also has to fight a rematch with former WBA heavyweight champion Nikolay Valuev, who Haye defeated by a 12 round majority decision last month on November 7th.

Klitschko defeated Johnson in a fight that was dull to watch for the most part. Johnson promised to knock Vitali out before the fight, but instead of going after Klitschko to try and fulfill his promise, Johnson adopted a defensive posture for 12 rounds and looked to be just trying to foil Klitschko and make him look bad rather than trying to win the fight. Johnson’s corner tried to motivate him early in the fight to start taking the fight to Klitschko.

But nothing worked. Johnson stayed on the ropes for the full 12 rounds, only rarely coming out to the center of the ring to throw any punches. Johnson’s offense consisted entirely of jabs. Indeed, Johnson threw only five power punches the entire fight, which has to be some kind of record low for a world title fight involving heavyweights.

For his part, Vitali didn’t look good either, appearing very slow of hand. Johnson would have likely had big problems against Vitali’s younger and much quicker brother, Wladimir Klitschko, who hits harder than Vitali. But against Vitali, Johnson was able to lean against the ropes and either pick off or duck Vitali’s slow attempts at landing his power shots. Johnson seemed to relish his role of making Klitschko look bad, seeming to ignore the fact that he was losing all the rounds by clowning and not letting his hands go.

Vitali must relish the idea of fighting Haye, a fighter that goes after his opponents, after facing Johnson. Haye has faster hands and takes many more chances than a fighter like Johnson. However, before Haye fights Klitschko, Haye needs to look impressive in beating Ruiz and/or Valuev. Haye didn’t look good against Valuev. He has to make sure he looks impressive from here on out if Haye wants his potential bout against Klitschko to be the huge moneymaker that some people think it will be.